I'm Not Afraid
by Skylark Evanson
Summary: Bart can't find the heart to tell Wally that he and Dick are dating. He swear's he'll tell him. "I'm not afraid."


**A/N: I've actually been working on this since the spring and the only reason it's taken this long is because I didn't know how to end it. And I'm still not 100% happy, but I created a set-up where it'd be difficult to get the exact ending I'd like without it being hideous.**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Young Justice or any affiliated characters.**

* * *

_I'm Not Afraid_

"What do you think Wally would say?" asked Bart softly, his face buried in Dick's bare chest as they lay together in his Blüdhaven apartment. His lips moved against the acrobat's skin, mumbling words and still getting a taste of those pecs.

"About?" questioned Dick, almost on the edge of drifting off for the night, his words like a dull knife due to sleep hazing his senses. His fingers mindlessly roamed through Bart's caramel-colored hair as he focused on the motion of the young speedster's breathing. Timmy had agreed to cover the city for the night, leaving Nightwing free to "hang out" with Bart. It was a nice break from the stress, and Dick was soaking up every second of peace.

The speedster twitched for a moment uncomfortably; his hand roamed for something to hold onto and Dick's hand solved that problem almost instantly. "About us." He squeezed Dick's hand, his heart sort of skipping a beat because he still struggled to grasp the total concept of being with Nightwing right here, right now, together. It blew his mind, the thought that Dick Grayson was actually in love with him. Never in a million years had he expected this, let alone the problems that came along with it.

Richard let out a mild grunt laced with a sighing undertone. "I don't think he'd care. He might be a little unsettled, but he's a pretty open-minded guy. I mean, he knows about me. It might just be weird to see me... with you." His hand paused from playing with Bart's hair. "But he shouldn't care, Imp. We're people. Love is love."

Continuing to twitch in discomfort, Bart swallowed hard. "I want to tell him."

"Then you can." Dick leaned forward a bit, his abs tightening, sending shivers of excitement through his young companion; he placed a sweet little kiss on Bart's head. "I'm his friend, you're his sort-of-cousin-person, I'm not really in the mood to try and sort that one out, you know what I mean." He laid himself back down and put one arm under his head before sighing. "He'll be fine, Bart. Don't be afraid."

"I'm not afraid." His voice was unwavering, almost steely. There was a pause. "I'll tell him."

Grayson's head was already tilted back, eyes shut, asleep.

"I'll tell him."

* * *

Impulse's hands roamed down the crevices and curves that made up Nightwing's torso before wandering down to those hips and feeling how they fit perfectly into his palms.

Kisses pecked at his cheeks and scraped across his jawline and trailed at his neck, joining whispers that told him that they should go somewhere else and lose the uniforms and masks and then just lose themselves. The team leader wasn't afraid of expressing himself very, very clearly.

Bart was about ready to agree too until the zeta beam started up. "Recognized: Kid Flash, B-03."

Upon quick realization, Dick noted that this probably wasn't the ideal situation for Wally to find out in, especially considering the acrobat was trying to talk Bart out of his clothes and into a dark room, but maybe it'd be like ripping off a bandaid, but with the secondary advantage of being able to pull on a condom moments later...

Dick sat up from being pinned down to the couch and, after noticing that the pinning down part wasn't happening anymore, searched a moment for Impulse's familiar uniform. But he had disappeared in a flash. (The phrase, especially in thought, shouldn't have been funny, but Dick still smirked.) So he stood up quickly and just tried to regain composure.

Wally walked in with a glare of golden light at his back, stretching his arms up towards the sky and then tilting his head this way and that to get his neck to crack before giving a contented sigh. Then his eyes fell on his friend. "Hey Di- Woah, man, I did not mean like that, you should go take care of that, cold shower, like just get outta here."

Grayson sighed and groaned lowly before headed off towards the bathroom.

Lucky for him, he met Bart in there, already stripped and ready to go.

"You ran," commented the team leader as he peeled away Nightwing and revealed Richard Grayson.

"I'm not afraid." Bart helped fold up the uniform as Grayson came up behind him, arms wrapping around his body in a gentle embrace.

"You left me with a massive boner and without an explanation," griped Dick, kissing Bart's hair softly while watching him fold.

"I'll tell him."

The condom was on, but so was the bandaid.

* * *

Chocolates. Bart loved chocolates. Dick smirked because shit yeah he nailed their month-iversary, he's got this one in the bag, he's rocking this relationship thing.

So he waited in the cave's kitchen, knowing that Conner and Meg were out and that Gar was having a training session with Timmy today so the cave was pretty cleaned out and free, so he figured he didn't have to hide what was going on today.

And then the lovely, inevitable thing happened.

Wally showed up.

"Jesus fucking-"

"Someone's got a hot date," laughed Wally, paired with a wolf whistle. "Who's the lucky fuck?" asked Kid Flash with a shit-eating grin spread across his freckled face.

Dick glanced over at his phone for a heartbeat just in time to see a message from Bart. _Sorry._ Nightwing swore he was going to kill the damn kid.

"For you, bro." He just handed over the chocolates, pretty much just surrendering his dignity for the day.

"Woah man, I know you swing that way, but my girlfriend's actually here like at the cave taking a shower with Zatanna- okay wow that was poorly phrased, you know what I mean, they were training." Wally still looked at the chocolates with longing eyes. "But for real, can I have these?"

"Yeah, sure, knock yourself out."

"Awesome." Wally popped off the top and began rifling through the chocolates, tossing a couple in the air at a time before catching them in his mouth while also walking towards the showers to track down Artemis.

Nightwing flopped down belly first onto the kitchen's island and laid there, his head falling off one end while his feet hung off the other. An irritated sigh made his chest rise and fall slowly.

"Smooth, lover boy," remarked Zatanna with an audible smirk in her words before slapping his skyward-facing ass.

He groaned. "Shut up."

* * *

"You're not afraid?" asked Dick with a raised eyebrow and an obviously skewed tone.

"I'll tell him."

"Uh-huh."

Bart groaned and reached up to steal the plate from Grayson's slender hands. His dinner was at stake. "I will."

Dick leaned down but still held the food out of reach. "Really?" His pale blue gaze met with that jade glare until Bart leaned forward and pecked a kiss on his lips and then gave a pleading look.

The food was finally handed over.

* * *

"Maneuver Seven runs something like this." He let the huge holo screens show footage from earlier training sessions with Wonder Girl and Batgirl.

With expert precision between the two girls, the video showed Cassie crouching down a bit while Batgirl came at her with a running start. And with one step falling into Cassie's interlocking fingers, the bat flew into the air with the aid of Cassie's superstrength, and Batgirl crashed down into a pile of test dummies with the prowess of a lioness.

"Think you can try that one?" asked the acrobat, knowing he was more than capable of it with some help from any of the team's stronger members, or at least those who could lift his now-bulked frame.

"Easy as pie," Bart laughed with a quick hand flip of utter nonchalance. Then he paused. "There isn't pie here by any chance, is there?"

Dick smirked but then tried to keep a straight face, knowing that Nightwing needed to get this speedster trained. Their lives couldn't be all fun and games. "C'mon, you handle the jump. Just watch your speed."

"No problemo!" He laughed. "Blue taught me that one."

Nightwing didn't have the time to correct his boyfriend's Spanish when he had a gala thing to get to tonight with Bruce. "Let's just get moving then." He backed up a good fifteen feet and let Impulse do the same before kneeling slightly, his legs tightened up and ready to spring for the throw.

"Ready or not, here I come!" Bart actually had the audacity to wink before practically charging at Nightwing, his body in a blur, and the issue with speedsters boiled down to times like these where shit just kind of hit the fan sometimes.

Coming in too fast like an out of control missile, Nightwing didn't have enough time to judge weight, strength, timing, he just knew he had to throw and hope for the best because otherwise, they'd both end up seriously injured at these speeds and Bart didn't look like he was slowing down. So when Dick felt that foot hit hit his hands, his only real instinct was to push upward with all his weight and hope for the best because he'd told Impulse to be careful and he didn't listen. This was the danger of speedsters.

And the kid went absolutely flying. Like a flying squirrel. Except less graceful. More flailing. And the sound of the crash was pretty horrific as he fell into a nosedive right into the pile of dummies, causing a clatter to fill the space.

"Bart!" Nightwing faded away and Dick was in his place, running over as any concerned boyfriend would and he felt like a jerk but if he hadn't tried to toss him, his speed would've given Nightwing some serious injuries. And so he found himself digging through the dummies until his little lover emerged, coughing a bit and shaking slightly, but whether it was his molecules or his nerves, Dick couldn't tell.

"That hurt," Bart moaned before feeling his head being tucked into his boyfriend's chest. "That wasn't our finest hour." Everything ached pretty good, he knew he'd probably come up with a couple bruises that'd disappear within the hour but it didn't make it sting any less right now. "That was probably actually our worst hour. So moded."

Dick kept cradling Bart for a moment before pulling him away, fingers wrapping around his neck in a more-than-friends way as he touched the side of the wounded boy's face. "Are you hurt badly? Can you still walk?"

"I'm fine," Bart said, looking up at that masked face. "I'm okay, D."

"What happened in here?" asked Wally in an almost about, arriving at the mouth of the passage that led to the training area from the kitchen with Artemis at his side, both of them clearly worried that something had gone horrendously wrong. "Is everyone alright?"

Bart had immediately frozen up, clearly caught unaware that his second cousin was even at Mount Justice today. With dilated pupils and panic scrawled across his face, Dick became the bigger man and tried to mask their actions with nonchalance. "Just working on Manuever Seven." At the sound of his voice, the holo screen began to play the footage of Wonder Girl and Batgirl one more time. "We messed up a little bit," continued Nightwing, "but Impulse is okay." He continued to check Bart over in a leader-y sort of way, trying not to alarm Bart any more. "He'll just need some food to stop jiggering." Nightwing had observed that his boyfriend's shaking had gotten dramatically worse the second Wally and Artemis stepped into the room.

"Here, I'll get him into the kitchen." Artemis moved in to take the kid's hand and she hauled him out of the "landing pad" that M'gann and Conner had thought was a good idea all those years ago. "Meg just finished some cookies, we'll get you some of those."

Dick could only be grateful that Artemis knew and wouldn't push it and also wouldn't tell Wally. Dick himself could prod and poke and pry but he would never push Bart. It wasn't his place.

"How can you screw up Maneuver Seven that badly?" asked Wally, watching as his second cousin limped out before turning his gaze to the screen that was still running to footage of the girls training.

"Speedsters."

Wally elbowed Dick, and they both smirked at each other, knowing that the leader was just being a smartass.

* * *

"So you two still haven't told Wally?" asked Cassie before putting a bit of chocolate into her mouth.

"Nope." Nightwing, in civvies, was laid out on the couch, sitting up with his back leaning against the arm of the couch, and had Bart sprawled across his chest, lap, and legs. The smaller hero had opted to take a power nap that had spiraled into three hours, that Cassie had walked in on halfway through and decided she and Gar could watch a movie with Nightwing while he was pinned under his boyfriend. The sense of community among the rookies with the senior members was stronger by the day.

"That seems kind of messed up," said Jaime, finally coming in with the popcorn, handing a bowl to Gar and then putting one on Bart's back so Nightwing didn't have to hold it. If anything, the kid could make a good lap desk for the moment. "I mean, we're being nonchalant and all-" Dick grinned subconsciously. "-but someone's bound to slip up."

"I'm just waiting for it, honestly," Gar said before using his tail to grab a piece of popcorn and throw it in the air to catch in his mouth.

"Pretty much," Jaime and Cassie added in-sync with subtle shy looks at each other.

Nightwing picked some popcorn up and some kernels fell into Bart's hair but he figured he could pick it up later; the speedster wouldn't even notice, really. "It's not my call. Wally's like a brother to me, but I'm not actually related to him. Bart is." He ate some popcorn before deciding to pick the bits out of his boyfriend's hair. "I'm not gonna be the one to tell Wally, 'Hey, your cousin's gay. Also, we've had sex.' That's just a dick move."

Gar giggled before repeating, "Dick."

Nightwing threw some popcorn at him, knowing the kid had sealed lips about his identity but it didn't stop Beast Boy from laughing every single time someone said it.

Conner meandered by behind Gar and Cassie, reaching over the green kid and taking some of his popcorn. "Don't say that, Meg'll go all Mother Hen." He ruffled Gar's hair with his other hand before checking out the group. When his blue eyes hit the couple, he paused. "Hey, uh, Wally's here-"

And then Nightwing just totally dumped Bart right on the floor, knowing his boyfriend was dead asleep and that it'd be a rude awakening, but Wally could show up and see them any second.

"What the hell?!" Bart yelped from the floor, looking up at Nightwing with angry eyes and pouty lips. "So not crash."

"Why is he on the floor?" asked the other speedster as he came into the room with Bumblebee at his side.

Bart then got it and had to come up with some half-assed excuse about tripping over something and stuttered through the entire thing. Everyone else sat there with tight lips while the movie rolled on...

* * *

"Okay I can totally pick you up."

"You don't have super strength."

"That doesn't mean I can't!"

Mal stood there and let Bart struggle to try and lift him. "Told you," laughed Guardian as he felt the kid surrender.

"You're heavier than you look," Bart panted while pointing an almost scolding finger at Mal while still grinning.

Bits and pieces of the team were floating around while waiting for a mission briefing. Mal stood beside Karen, Bart standing in front of them both, now with his hands on his knees as he panted for a moment to catch his breath. Gar was around somewhere, or at least he had been a minute ago. Wally and Artemis had dropped by and were waiting in the wings nearby for Zatanna to show up so they could head out to a movie. Conner, Cassie, and Tim were on call and just waiting for their fearless leader to finally arrive, if he could ever get his butt here from Blüdhaven.

"Oh but I can totally pick up Wally."

"Oh my god no," protested West but it was too late and he was already being lifted into the air by his cousin person and his legs were just kicking empty air. Wally sighed and surrendered while Artemis laughed beside him.

"Here, here-" Wally found a better target as the zeta was firing up and starting to announce the familiar arrival of /Nightwing, B-01/. "Go get that one instead!"

And before Nightwing could even get in the door Bart had already scooped him up and sped him over to what was pretty much his pedestal where he would pull up the computers and show the screens but he was being held like a too big damsel in distress by a less than graceful, probably not exactly handsome, knight in a skintight suit.

"Impulse, can you not?!" Nightwing probably would've kicked and thrashed if it was just them but he still had some dignity. And the whole team was watching. Pride was still a thing.

And then Conner just burst: "You already knew?!"

Nightwing, with his ass facing the crowd of people that were, theoretically, supposed to look up to him as a leader, was dropped as the room went into a chorus of "Goddammit" and "Jesus Fucking Christ" and "What the shit", most of which was by the senior members because they were the only ones who had mouths like that. And so, after sitting up and looking at the crowd, everyone was just ready to probably punch Wally in his now-horrified face.

Upon rising, he leaned down a bit to ask Bart quietly, "What just happened?"

And the unusually pale and suddenly soft spoken speedster murmured, "He already knew."

And Nightwing suddenly felt the same way: ready to punch Kid Asshole as well as come up with about fifteen nasty names to call him for the next month and a half.

"I heard him say it," defended Conner with wild eyes. Must've been superhearing, Nightwing assumed. "Just leaned over to Artemis and said-" Conner's voice got all high pitched and mocking, something he'd actually picked up from Wally over the years. "-'they're actually cute together'. What the hell, Wally?!"

The chorus struck up again and most of the rookies were shifting uncomfortably except Gar who was taking every opportunity to swear since M'gann wasn't there and no one else would notice in the hear of the moment.

Really, Dick was just glad that was over with. "Hey! Hey!" He was still a leader, there was still a mission. "Let's get back to work," he said, once everyone was settled down.

Quickly, he rattled off the assignment: Superboy would fly the bioship to the spot where some of Black Manta's men were suspected of trying to take over an oil site, he, Wonder Girl, Bumblebee, and Robin would check it out (covertly) while Guardian watched from above in camouflage mode, acting as a home base for them. Nightwing opted to substitute Bumblebee in for Impulse so that he could make sure the kid was emotionally stable after the sudden shock to his system- and Karen understood entirely. Besides, what all could go wrong on a covert mission?

Afterwards, while everyone else was heading out, or at least getting ready to, Dick took his still shellshocked boyfriend's hand and gave it a squeeze before pulling him towards their tormentor.

Artemis actually spoke up first. "I swear I didn't tell him, he figured it out on his own. And I knew that he knew but he said no sex if I told, and D, you understand." She gave him a severe look. "You know what I mean."

And it was pretty much resolved when Dick opened his mouth and both speedsters were suddenly trying to talk to interrupt him and both were trying to clasp a hand over his mouth because Wally didn't want to hear it and Bart didn't want Wally to hear it.

Meanwhile, Artemis had her shit-eating grin on, knowing that she had gotten both boys on a mutual point of "let's get Nightwing to not say words".

"So are we all good here?" asked Nightwing, looking between the probably cousins. Because it wasn't his cross to bear. This had been every one of Bart's fears since they started dating. He'd been scared for months now. "Because you guys can go talk it out and I'll go with the girls to see the movie-"

"I'm fine with you guys dating," interrupted Wally with a wave of his hand, as if brushing away all the problems like a magical fairy with a wand. "Just no like intense kissing in front of me, and we're fine. I don't care. And don't treat each other badly because-" He jabbed Grayson with one finger while watching Bart. "-he's my best friend, and he's-" The finger now jabbed Bart while Dick got the warning look. "-my cousin. So no dick moves."

They tried not to smirk. But Bart was the first to clear his throat. "And you're really okay with this? Even though-"

"It doesn't bother me, you guys." Wally probably would've laughed it off if he didn't think it might inadvertently hurt Bart's feelings. "Just don't be that obnoxious couple." He began to make coughing and choking noises whilst saying "Meg and Conner" because yeah they were awful half the time. When they were together, anyways.

Gar, still somewhere and apparently listening, actually called out, "I'm telling Megan!"

"Aw shit." Wally actually started to give chase to try and find Gar before he could get in touch with Miss M. Besides, Zatanna would take another ten minutes to be fashionably late.

"So you two are good," sighed Artemis, arms now folded across her chest as she watched her boyfriend chase down the little green monkey child. "Go relax and have sex or something now. Life's easier, go enjoy it."

Dick turned to Bart, biting his lower lip. "I really should stay here to keep an eye on the mission, make sure we don't need to send out a beta team…" And when his boyfriend nodded with general acceptance, he continued, "But I'll still come by around eight tonight."

"Time to get chased out by another buffet restaurant." Bart winked and wore that lop-sided grin. "You got it."

* * *

**A/N: Leave a review, thanks for reading!**

**~Sky**


End file.
